Telemarketing is about to get a whole lot worse...

[widebody911]

Ringless voicemail

has quietly thrown its support behind a proposal at the Federal Communications Commission that would pave the way for marketers to auto-dial consumers’ cellphones and leave them prerecorded voicemail messages — all without ever causing their devices to ring.

[legion]

I wonder if my blocked number list will work on this? If it doesn't now, I imagine it will in the future.

But seriously, I'm not going to buy a product from anyone who annoys me. I view this tactic as similar to the Nigerian Prince scam: It selects for people who part with their money easily.

[GH85Carrera]

Wow, that sure as heck needs to be something the device can prevent. Like most people if I don't recognize the callers number, I don't answer. 99% of the time they don't leave a message.

I guess if they leave a message they have to leave a way to contact them to get the wonderful product or service they are pushing. Call them back and waste their time as much as possible.

[flipper35]

+1 to legion. I would not do business with anyone that pulls that.

I guess the bright side is I might start saving a lot of money.

[stomachmonkey]

The key will be how the carriers treat this.

If you have a consumer on a pre paid or time limited plan then the call can't count against their minutes.

If it does you're gonna have an issue because you've removed the consumers choice to answer or not and are effectively stealing from them.

[masraum]

Hmm, interesting. I'd researched this a bit a couple of years ago. Then about the only folks allowed to use the no-call voicemail option were bill collectors. Regular cold call spam calls didn't really do it. The theory was that it was more restricted, because if everyone started doing it, people would put a stop to it, and then the bill collectors would lose their avenue.

Originally Posted by legion

I wonder if my blocked number list will work on this? If it doesn't now, I imagine it will in the future.

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

Wow, that sure as heck needs to be something the device can prevent. Like most people if I don't recognize the callers number, I don't answer. 99% of the time they don't leave a message.

I guess if they leave a message they have to leave a way to contact them to get the wonderful product or service they are pushing. Call them back and waste their time as much as possible.

No, doubtful, because they aren't calling you. It's basically a business sending you a voicemail via email. Spam business sets up a deal with Cell business where they can send a voicemail straight to end users' voicemail boxes like an email, so there is no call to block. I suspect since it is coming via a data network rather than a telephone number, there may not be a number to block either unless the tech details of the process requires that the sender includes a "from telephone number" in the message.

I'm guessing companies may eventually come up with SPAM filters for your VM if users don't scream until this capability is blocked outright.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

The key will be how the carriers treat this.

If you have a consumer on a pre paid or time limited plan then the call can't count against their minutes.

If it does you're gonna have an issue because you've removed the consumers choice to answer or not and are effectively stealing from them.

There's no call to count against minutes. The only way it might is if calls to the user's voicemail to hear their messages count against their minutes.

I'm not in the cell phone business, but I am a network engineer, so I suspect I've got a pretty good handle on how this works.

Your voicemail is basically like audio email. If you don't answer the phone, callers can leave an email for you to retrieve at a later time on a server. That server has 2 ways to receive mail, one is via a call, but the other is via a network connection (exactly like email). Providers don't leave that route open to just anyone, but they are starting to set up that route for certain institutional users. Basically company A sends an audio message like an email straight to your mailbox via the Internet instead of using phone lines.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Originally Posted by masraum

There's no call to count against minutes. The only way it might is if calls to the user's voicemail to hear their messages count against their minutes.

Does it affect my battery life to listen to my voicemail? Because if it does, then they're stealing electrons from me. Electrons that I paid the power company for.

Not to mention the theft of my time - and I bill at an obscene rate.

[T77911S]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

Wow, that sure as heck needs to be something the device can prevent. Like most people if I don't recognize the callers number, I don't answer. 99% of the time they don't leave a message.

I guess if they leave a message they have to leave a way to contact them to get the wonderful product or service they are pushing. Call them back and waste their time as much as possible.

same here, just had my phone ring from out of state.

I DONT HAVE VOICE MAIL!!!!!! screw you telemarketers!!! HA!

[masraum]

Originally Posted by BlueSkyJaunte

Does it affect my battery life to listen to my voicemail? Because if it does, then they're stealing electrons from me. Electrons that I paid the power company for.

Not to mention the theft of my time - and I bill at an obscene rate.

yep. For that reason, I like visual voicemail.

[tabs]

Originally Posted by legion

I wonder if my blocked number list will work on this? If it doesn't now, I imagine it will in the future.

But seriously, I'm not going to buy a product from anyone who annoys me. I view this tactic as similar to the Nigerian Prince scam: It selects for people who part with their money easily.

My name is Elvis McGonigal and I am an attorney in LV, it has come to my attention that you have been mentioned in the Will of a distant relative. He has left you a gold bearing claim in the hills of LV which has been assayed out to be 6 oz of pure GOLD to the ton. To proceed to transferring the claim and settling a lien against the property please wire transfer $3000.00 USD to the Bank of LV, located in Lagos.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by tabs

My name is Elvis McGonigal and I am an attorney in LV, it has come to my attention that you have been mentioned in the Will of a distant relative. He has left you a gold bearing claim in the hills of LV which has been assayed out to be 6 oz of pure GOLD to the ton. To proceed to transferring the claim and settling a lien against the property please wire transfer $3000.00 USD to the Bank of LV, located in Lagos.

One of Tabs' best posts. Good one!

[ckelly78z]

Telemarketing must work on some people or else they wouldn't still do it. Evidently it is a game of numbers....contact 100 people, and just maybe get one sale from that amount. Now multiply that by 10/100/1000, and you start to see some signifigant sales returns...mostly from nieve, older people who can't afford these items/services.

I have never, and will never buy anything from someone who contacts me, and gives me a sales pitch, I usually over research things I am interested in, and find the best price from a reptable company.

[GH85Carrera]

My point was that if they leave me a message and they have some fantastic product I really want, they have to leave me a way to get in touch with them to buy the service or product. Unless they are just leaving generic ads like on TV or radio, but even then they let you know where to go to get their service or product. What retailer would dare to just leave a message to go visit your local McDonalds or Wal Mart to buy the product?

[legion]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

My point was that if they leave me a message and they have some fantastic product I really want, they have to leave me a way to get in touch with them to buy the service or product. Unless they are just leaving generic ads like on TV or radio, but even then they let you know where to go to get their service or product. What retailer would dare to just leave a message to go visit your local McDonalds or Wal Mart to buy the product?

I think it would be safest to call them back from a burner phone. That way, they don't know who they are talking to.

There's been a rumor circulating around here that scamming telemarketers are recording people say things like "yes" and then using that recording to authorize wire transfers and such.

When I have the time, I like to play the "how long can I keep them on the phone without telling them anything" game. I once kept a guy on the phone from "Geek Support" for over an hour while he attempted a remote logon to my computer. I did give him 104.16.77.187 as the IP address though....

[hcoles]

The douchebaggery of the telemarketers never ceases to amaze.

[berettafan]

indeed if you are part of that industry you need to understand you are making a living by reducing the quality of life in the USA.

[vash]

i'll never understand the business strategy..annoy the customer into buying?!

i dont know a single person that ever bought from a telemarketer calling right at dinner time.

[ted]

Every-time I hear that phone its ringing.

ringing or not, I always let it go to voice mail,
delete is easier than answering.

[Schrup]